It was a noble deed, nobly
and gallantly carried out; and when it had been achieved, the brave
fighter returned to the tender care of the wounded, and to alleviate
the pains of the dying.
And now Hodson had got together the threads of his retirement, and using
one to help the other, gradually and slowly drew back, covering the
brigade with a net of safety. Thus quietly falling back, and meeting
wild charges with ball and bayonet, he kept the open valley till all the
force had safely passed the defile of exit. Then, while the last of his
infantry got safely to commanding posts on the lower slopes, he himself,
with the ready resource of the born fighter, changed his game, and from
the patient role of the steady infantry commander, became a cavalry
leader. Mounting his horse and calling on the Guides' cavalry to follow
him, he suddenly charged the astonished enemy, and hurling them back
with slaughter secured for the rest of his men a peaceful retirement.
But before they laid themselves on the hard ground, this paladin of the
fight and his staunch warriors had spent eighteen hours in desperate
warfare with little food and no water.
So far as the records show this was the first occasion on which Hodson
had led a cavalry charge, and was an auspicious opening to a cavalry
career of remarkable brilliancy,--a career which was brought to a brave,
but untimely end, only four years later before the walls of Lucknow.
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